Marine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 210, 201122
Presently there are three landing centres in RaigadDisrict under regular operation during monsoon fisheryviz., Alibag, Borli-Mandla and Nandgao-Mazgao. Inthese landing centres, fishes caught during monsoonfishery by gillnet operation are landed where good catchof Hilsa ilisha and Rastrelliger kanagurta are obtained.
On 5th July 2011, there was unusual landing ofH. ilisha (85 to 160 kg per craft) and R. kanagurta(60 to 120 kg per craft) by six bottom set gillnets locally
Unusual landing of Hilsa ilisha and Rastrelliger kanagurtaat Raigad region of Maharashtra
Ramesh B. RaoField Centre of CMFRI, Alibag
called budijal having mesh size of 60 to 100 mm atAlibag Landing Centre during the monsoon period. Theprices at the landing centre were ̀ 460 to 500 per kgfor H.ilisha and ̀ 100 per kg for R. kanagurta.
It was reported by the local fishermen that theabove phenomenon continued upto the secondfortnight of July and very good catch of these specieswere landed during this period at these centres.
Longbeak common dolphin Delphinus capensis (Gray, 1828) strandedat Karwar, Karnataka
Narayan G. VaidyaResearch Centre of CMFRI, Karwar
A dead specimen of longbeak common dolpinDelphinus capensis (Gray, 1828), locally called ‘handimeenu’ which was floating approximately 500 m awayfrom sea shore of Aligadda village, Karwar was broughtashore by fishermen and instructors of Karavali sportsclub in the morning hours of 08.01.2011.
The specimen was a male of 2.1 m total lengthand 127 kg weight. The animal had injuries on theright side of the dorsal fin with a hole on the body.During the post-mortem examination of the specimen,the said hole was found to be 5 inches deep with adamage in the right lung which might be the cause ofdeath. Fresh fishes were observed in the stomach.
Fig. 1. The longbeak common dolphin stranded atKarwar
Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus washed ashore at Devbagh,Karnataka
S. R. Krupesha Sharma, K. K. Philipose and N. G. VaidyaResearch Centre of CMFRI, Karwar
A female sperm whale Physeter macrocephaluswas stranded and washed ashore in dead condition,
at Devbagh, 10 km away from Karwar on 18.9.2009.According to fishermen, the whale was noticed on
The specimen was collected by Forest Departmentofficials and burried in the sea shore after postmortem.
Marine Fisheries Information Service T&E Ser., No. 210, 2011 23
Bumper catch of Nemipterus spp. at Munambam Fisheries Harbour
Sijo PaulCentral Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi
The August 2011 postmonsoon ban period
witnessed a bumper catch of Nemipterus spp. The
trawlers at Munambam Fisheries Harbour after 3-5 days
of fishing had enormous catch of Nemipterus spp.
(Fig.1 and 2) ranging from 1.8 to 12.4 t per boat from a
depth range of 65 to 80 m. The peak landing was on08.08. 2011.
The presence of Psenopsis cyanea along withNemipterus spp. was also a unique feature of the catch.This trend prevailed for the first and second week ofAugust and then declined by the third week.
Honeycomb stingrays (Himantura uarnak) washed ashoreat Uran coast in Maharashtra
Ramesh B. RaoField Centre of CMFRI, Alibag
Parameters Dimensions (cm)
Total length 990Blow-hole length 36Lower jaw 138Upper jaw 160Length of fluke frommedian notch 171Length of flipper 54
About 50 to 55 numbers of the honeycombstingray, Himantura uarnak (Fig.1) were washed ashoreat Mankeshwar beach near Uran coast in RaigadDistrict of Maharashtra on 21st August 2010. Thesefishes were about 4 feet long and about 3 feet in discwidth.
Local fishermen informed that this kind of unusualstranding is observed for the first time at this placeand they feel that it might have occurred due tooil spill, leakage of pesticide and chemicals after thecollision of two ships near Mumbai coast on 7th August,2010.
Fig.1. Himantura uarnak stranded at Uran coast,Maharashtra
17.9.2009 around 1730 hrs struggling to escape fromthe shallow waters. The total length of the whale was990 cm with an approximate weight of 12 t. The whalewas suspected to be injured due to collision with
a ship as evidenced by profuse bleeding from theblow-hole. No external injury was observed. This isthe second record of sperm whale stranding at Karwar.Earlier, a sperm whale was found stranded at Karwaron 23.06.1972. The morphometric measurements ofthe sperm whale recorded are as follows:
Fig. 1. The sperm whale Physeter macrocephalusstranded at Devbagh, Karnataka
